Duke Nukem is back. Captured by an alien foe in the middle of promoting his best-selling book, “Why I’m So Great”, Duke must once more defeat the forces of evil to save himself from the knowledge-stealing Rigelatins, and ultimately prove his book’s namesake.

6 мая

Now Available on Steam - 3D Realms Anthology, 25% off! 5 May 3D Realms Anthology is Now Available on Steam and is 25% off!*

With 32 classic titles - which is almost every Apogee and 3D Realms game ever released - and a re-rockestrated soundtrack by Interceptor Entertainment's Andrew Hulshult (Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded, Brutal Doom), the 3D Realms Anthology is your chance to kick ass in the past for an absolutely killer price.

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Duke Nukem is back. Captured by an alien foe in the middle of promoting his best-selling book, “Why I’m So Great”, Duke must once more defeat the forces of evil to save himself from the knowledge-stealing Rigelatins, and ultimately prove his book’s namesake. In this sequel to the 1991 high-octane, bot-busting video game, Duke Nukem, the King of Action must blast, cannon, missile and flame his way to victory - a victory that would stop the secrets of both ass-kicking and bubblegum from falling into the wrong hands.

Key Features:

Never Put a Good Duke Down: The sequel to 1991’s Duke Nukem and precursor to 1996’s Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem II is a pivotal part of the legendary Duke Nukem saga.

I’ll Be Back: Absent from Duke Nukem II’s original release, Duke has been retrofitted with sun glasses for a third dimension of coolness in a two dimensional-world.

Don’t Try This at Home: Always the consummate professional, Duke must collect power-ups, fly space fighters, and drink six-packs to escape the clutches of his evil alien captors.

I had previously played Duke Nukem a few weeks ago, and contray to popular opinion, I didn't enjoy my time playing, I personally put that down to not having any emotional attachment to the series. But saying that, here I am, having just finished Duke Nukem 2 (with the help of a FAQ guide), and I enjoyed it very much.

I will get the bad points out of the way first; yes I know this is a straight port from a DOS game, but I think it would of been even better if the controller would of worked with it. You can configure a controller, however it gets stuck in a loop of just pressing down a direction constantly, so I had to play with the clunky keyboard controlls, which took some time to get used to.

The good points are what I would expect to see in any side scrolling shooter, lots of bad guys and lots of different weapons to kill them with. I liked that the game is very unforgiving, if you die, you basically start the whole level all over again, and boy did I find that out the hardway.

This time we get a sound track as well! The catchy 8 bit tune soon gets stuck in your head as you are wandering around. Sound effects remind you of playing in the arcade. Very nicely done. A full play through took me just about five hours.

I really enjoyed my time on Duke Nukem 2, hoping this will carry onto the next one I play.

Duke Nukem 2 is a pretty solid platform shooter considering its age. If you have played the first title and enjoyed it, definitely pick this one up as well because it is basically the same with some cool new weapons and features.

The only drawbacks are that it is a pretty short game and it shows its age in some core gameplay and structural qualities at times. This is worth picking up, but I would wait for a sale.

Duke Nukem 2 is an old single-player PC platforming-shooting game that was released in 1993 by Apogee. And yes, Duke Nukem existed before 3D, you know.

Technically this release uses fine-tuned DosBOX that also allows Steam Overlay, keeping all pure. Well, aside from it stretching image for widescreen monitors.

Actually, when Duke Nukem 2 first came to Steam, it had some small changes in it. Duke was given sunglasses, intro told about this awesome game being released "back then" and little screen "press H for help" and during gameplay was replaced by Duke's static face. With sunglasses. Kinda a way of trying to bring Duke's personality from 3D. And that was like that until 3D Realms Anthology came out, after which developers update Steam DN2 to change it back to how it was in original.

And well, on theory this games hould be a clear improvement over Duke Nukem 1. And for most parts it is! Especially when you take a look at each aspect serapately.Graphics use more colors. Characters are bigger, more detailed. More mature too. It has system of four weapons. Even more variety in enemies you ancounter. It got ladders now. Platforming is more enjoyable with addition of being able to cling over rails without need of powerup. More levels. More level themes. More style. It has nice music now too. And bosses that don't suck.What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it has the same horrible sins as some of other platformers of 16-bit era had to deal with: camera issues and cheap difficulty. Hmm. Yea, something what modern indie game actually know how to deal with, I gotta say.

Anyway, imagine Duke Nukem 1. Now make every character 2-3 times bigger. That's how little camera space you are actually given. Even better seeing how camera hangs a little behind where Duke is walking, resulting in that you often run into things before you can even react. And what is weirder is how camera handles vertical movement. It's not going to move until hero is at very edge of a screen. So you often have to stop and press down or up to make camera adjuct to show what you really want. Like, being able to actually see what is above you. Only to have something nasty spawn onto your head, as the objects spawn in game world only when they appear on camera. Not to say that DN1 didn't had same problem, DN1 was happy to throw 3 mechs onto your sorry butt from above just for jumping up. Yet DN2 is way too punishing to tolerate having such issues.It also has radar. But it's useless as it only barely reaches outside of camera range and trying to focus on it on each step would take away your attention in case something happens on a screen.

Well, to be honest, there are some levels where it was the least of issue. Levels with nice platforming, with non-rushing enemies, where you can adjuct vertical property of camera in peace and with some vertical space to jump around.

But then you have levels that are nothing but corridors and are littered with visual trash. Yea, visuals get messy at times. I was also surprised to find out that some tiles were actually stairs. And then some enemies can shoot or rush at you before you can react properly.

Even worse is that game can't decide if you are supposed to shoot a lot or shoot extremly carefully. It's much more punishing for careless shooting now, with boxes being able to spawn bomb/rocket that will immeditly explode upon being hit. Or it has bouncing spikeballs like DN1 does, but if they get hit they will start to bounce away, moving in a direction. And seeing how you have little camera space, well, it gets unpredictable.

So yea, game is pain in the back when it comes to the worst it can throw at it. There are few moments where you are stuck in hallway that is littered with both boxes that contain bombs and enemies that shoot at you quickly. Even better if enemies are placed behind boxes. You will get damaged, whether you try to shoot a lot or try to be more careful. Even worse with game encouraging you to carelessly shoot around with power-up that allows you to dispense bullets as long as you hold a button.

Difficulty is all over the place too. You can save, yes, but it only saves in what level you are. Reloading a save will put you in the start of a level, so "hardcore PC gamers" can't savescum their way out. And as said, because of reasons mentioned above, game can get extremly hard. Punishing.Until you get checkpoint. Then suddenly DN2 turns itself upside down and lands with head onto ground. Why?Well, because when you restart from checkpoint the world doesn't reset. The enemies you killed before will stay dead. Suddenly you can just beat the level by being a dumb, shooting and tanking your way with no care for the world, as you can always just respawn at checkpoint with no progress lost.One difficult prison level even had checkpoint hidden behind locked door, with key way out of a way. As if developers knew of how broken it is.

Oh yea, and some bugs. Mostly being able to get out on top of level. And getting stuck in the corner in ruin level.

And it's all a shame, because when DN2 was at it's best it was a damn nice game. Enjoyable. Until it screws you up. With challenging bosses. And enemies being varied. I especially remembered the first level of the 4th episode, at the bottom of spaceship, where you had to cling on the pole. Platforming there is such a great joy, with responsible controls! Moments where being careful was safe and rewarding were good too. And three weapon powerups being nicely balanced around monsters. Flamejump is a thing there, of sorts.

Duke Nukem 1 looks dull in theory but executed nicely, letting you enjoy just playing it. Duke Nukem 2 is theorically superior, and sometimes it is, but it faces the same fate as other "potentially great" platformers of 16-bit era, being dragged down by game design sins in execution. Quite a shame, it's a joy at some moments.